I went to Wakinosawa with my mum, aunt and (ex)boyfriend. Boyfriend and I are/were anthropologists, so we really wanted to see some wild Japanese macaques, and my mum chose this place after reading that the hostel owner is a wildlife photographer & he can help you track wild macaques.
We arrived, and the owner (Isoyama-san) asked if we wanted to go to the onsen before dinner. My British boyfriend had never been to an onsen and a bit too scared to go on his own, and being a woman I could not go with him, so it was really great that Isoyama-san offered this to us! When we got back to the hostel, dinner was ready and waiting for us, all hand-made traditional Japanese food. It was delicious.
Room was fine & quite a cosy hostel feel, with lots of wood.
The next day, we had breakfast, then went looking for the wild macaques. I borrowed their spare wellies as I only had trainers & they said if I wanted to go into the forest I might need better shoes. We drove around and bumped into the "monkey police" (one man + dog whose job it is to chase the macaques away from crops around the town!). The monkey police man told us he'd seen the macaques further down the road, so we drove on & eventually got out the car. We walked around for a bit, and we found the troop! It was spring, so there were quite a few females with infants clinging onto them. Isoyama-san told us all sorts of things about the macaques, and he was just brilliant. And we got so many beautiful photos!
Overall, it felt like we were staying at someone's house rather than a hostel, which is exactly what I needed :)
My friends and I spent two nights at this youth hostel when we went on a road trip to the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori prefecture. This is a very remote area with little infrastructure for tourists - it's basically impossible to get around without your own transport. The main town in the area is Mutsu, but we decided not to stay there as in Lonely Planet this hostel sounded like it would be nice. It's in the small town (or village) of Wakinosawa, which is beautifully located right on the coast with some stunning scenery. There are pretty much no facilities beyond Mutsu, and Wakinosawa is about an hour's drive further along the edge of the peninsula. There aren't even combinis, which are ubiquitous in Japan - I think this was the furthest I'd been from a Seven Eleven in 14 months in the country!
I think this hostel is probably the only place to stay outside of Mutsu. It isn't a budget option, even though it's a youth hostel and a member of Hostelling International - it cost us about Y4000 per person, per night, which isn't cheap ... you can stay in a business hotel for less. This price didn't include anything; there was breakfast available but for an extra charge. I think it was also possible to arrange dinner (according to Lonely Planet, anyway) but we weren't told about this. No towels were provided. When we arrived, our beds weren't made up and we had to put the sheets on ourselves ... now, I know this is a pretty standard thing for at a hostel, particularly in Japan, but for the price we were paying, it would have been nice to have arrived to ready-made beds - especially since they knew in advance that we were coming, and the place is so remote that they were hardly rushed off their feet. I think there were about 3 other guests there on our first night (judging by the bikes outside), and the second night it was just us.
We stayed in a four bed female dorm room (there were three of us, but the fourth bed was empty). The hostel itself, or at least what we saw of it (I think there were more rooms upstairs, as well as a dining area, but we didn't explore these areas) was very clean, and very quaint. From the outside it looks like a European-style building, a bit like a Swiss chalet. Inside, there were lots of pictures of the Japanese serow, a goat-like creature native to Honshu. Apparently there are lots of them in the area, although we didn't see any. The pictures (and also little statues / knicknacks) were all very cute and made the hostel seem quite homely. The beds, once we'd made them, were really comfortable. There was a separate shower and toilet a little further down the corridor - this was very clean and soap and shampoo was provided. This was for female use only - we didn't see where the male dorm was but I assume they have their own washing facilities nearby.
On our first night, we arrived later than we were planning as we'd had dinner in Mutsu and then had to drive to the hostel. We didn't realise, but there's actually a curfew - we were supposed to arrive before 8pm. We managed it, but only just ... I don't think the woman who runs the hostel was that happy with us. As there's nothing to do once at the hostel, we just went to bed and were asleep by about 9.30pm. The following morning, at 8am, we were woken up by the woman bursting into our room (oh yeah, the dorm room didn't have a lock) and loudly announcing good morning. She then went away and we went back to sleep for a while, before getting up and showering etc. When we finally set out for the day, we were told that we were supposed to have been out the hostel by 9am - this was at gone 10am. We hadn't been told this in advance, nor had the woman come along to hurry us up, but again, she didn't seem too pleased at us not respecting the times. The following morning, we were once again woken up at about 8am and rushed out ... we had to shower, gather our stuff together, take the sheets off the bed and pack, so we actually ended up leaving at about 9.05am, and the owners (this time the woman's husband was also there) were NOT happy. They didn't really say anything to us but it was clear that they felt we were rude and disrespectful.
Overall, this was a pleasant place to stay, and good quality accommodation for somewhere so remote. However, it was very overpriced for a dorm room - but then I guess that in a place like Wakinosawa, they can charge what they want as they run the only accommodation in the area. It was spotlessly clean and had character. It would have been nice if breakfast were provided, or towels at the very least. Having to make our own beds up after a really long drive to get there was a bit annoying. We hardly saw anything of the owners; I got the impression that they have other jobs and the hostel is run in their spare time, which would explain the morning curfew at least. I wish we'd known about this in advance as we were planning to sleep in, especially as there's not a huge amount to do in the area so we wanted to take things slowly and have a more leisurely morning relaxing at the hostel before going out. If you are exploring the Shimokita Peninsula and don't want to stay in Mutsu, this is probably your only option, and it was nice for two nights, but I think if there were other places competing with it, the owners would have to change a few things to keep business coming in.